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“Allegiant” ends series with a flourish

â€śAllegiant,â€ť the third film adaptation of the Divergent series, follows Tris Prior (Shailene Woodley) and her friends as they venture beyond the protective walls of Chicago in a post-apocalyptic world. In the last movie â€śInsurgent,â€ť a war broke out between two factions and ended after Prior killed the Erudite faction leader. â€śAllegiantâ€ť continues Priorâ€™s story after the war: she escapes the city with her brother Chris Prior (Ansel Elgort), her boyfriend Tobias Eaton (Theo James) and her friends Peter (Miles Teller) and Christina (ZoĂ« Kravitz) to explore beyond the walls of the city. Unknowingly, this poses a major threat to the vigilant community that has been controlling and observing the inhabitants of Chicago from the outside. â€śAllegiantâ€ť revolves around the manipulation that ensues as the outside community tries to keep its operations secret. Â Â

The actors in the movie all portray their characters beautifully and bring the movie to life with their emotional performances, but Woodley stands out as the most talented actress. Her character Tris has the most dramatic backstory, and Woodley capitalizes on that complexity. â€śAllegiantâ€ť pits Trisâ€™ conflicting interests against each other, helping the audience connect with her mental and physical struggles. Her dynamic personality separates her from the typical archetypes of most movies as well, further emphasizing her strength and resilience in light of the challenges she faces.

The film features many action scenes that are executed brilliantly with the use of explosives and dramatic fighting scenes. Despite the fact that some of these scenes contribute little to plot development, the high tension makes the movie a lot more interesting and adds excitement to compensate for the scenesâ€™ redundancy.

The soundtrack for the film is mostly instrumental, with the sole exception of â€śScarsâ€ť by Tove Lo. â€śScarsâ€ť is about trying to forget what happened in the past and moving forward no matter what has happened. The song captures the core of Trisâ€™ character as she struggles with moral questions and conflicting interests that test her loyalty — hence, the name of the film.

Overall, the movie wonderfully develops each character and the plot. Though there may be a handful of deficiencies scattered throughout the film, the dramatic ending compensates for those minor flaws and concludes the popular series with a theater-worthy finale.